Month: June 2024

I left the campground late on that drizzly Sunday morning. The break in the rain let me pack up the tent at least not soaking wet. With only 28 km to Salzburg, I decided to take my time. While the local castle only open on the weekends, I explored the grounds before I headed out.

I wandered towards Salzburg in the rain, taking every opportunity to explore castle icons on my map.

Unsuccessfully, the best I found were baroque Manor houses. All still in use, one was clearly a retirement home. Wandering back and forth, occasionally lost in twisty little neighborhood streets, about 10 km out of Salzburg I stopped under bridge to check on Linda.

I’d lost track of time, having forgotten that I left late, and normally measuring my time by distance. When I pulled my phone out of airplane mode at 1:30 p.m. I had a number of messages from Linda asking what had happened to me! I was supposed to touch base about the success for her getting cash. And nothing had worked.

So I sat under that bridge, on that drizzly Sunday afternoon, working with Linda to find a way to get her cash. Between us we had four phone numbers, and a number of credit cards, and at least three different options for online services to send cash: Western Union, MoneyGram, and Ria. We never managed to get any of them working. We kept being close but then triggering fraud alerts on the credit cards.

Linda had mentioned earlier that her power on her phone was low, and then I suddenly lost contact with her. I decided any solution could only improve with me being in nearby Salzburg, so I picked myself up and headed there.

In the interim, Linda searched for power, and managed to get a partial charge on her phone. We made another attempt or two in Salzburg for online money transfers, but were running out of time. I was also concerned we would deactivate otherwise working credit cards for fraud. I was running out of runway, potentially leaving Linda unable to pay for her accommodation. Linda was stressed out. So I bought a train ticket, and took myself to Linda.

In that simple solution, we’d miscommunicated. While I had thought I knew at which station to meet Linda, along the way she’d given me the name of the end of the line (and a picture to match). When I arrived at the station where I would have gotten off had Linda not sent me that photo, I stayed on the train. I texted Linda to let her know I was close. She let me know that the train from Salzburg had just pulled out of the station. Oops. With me on it.

Fortunately, the next stop was only 7 km away. I disembarked and rode back to Linda. Except construction had closed the road between me and Linda! Fortunately I found the pedestrian crossing moments before deciding to bike 10 km around the construction. From there I had only a short ride to Linda.

When I arrive, we were running out of daylight. We rode to a bank to get cash, only to stumble over the fact that I had made a cash withdrawal earlier that day, and couldn’t pull any more! At that point Linda’s and my combined cash would at least pay for her guest house. I also carry another credit card. I rummaged through my bags and pulled cash from that card. From there we went to McDonald’s to pick up a late dinner. Then we rode back to her guest house, up a 7% incline.

I was confident that with just a little more time, I could have solved the cash problem remotely. But if I ran out of time? So I solved it the one way I knew would work.

While my original plan (okay, so we’re several levels past the original plan) was to take a train back to Salzburg on Tuesday, when I looked at the map on Tuesday morning a different route presented itself back to Salzburg! With no rain in the forecast, and a gloriously sunny day, I biked back to Salzburg… again.

In sunshine.

Linda would arrive in Salzburg by train late Wednesday morning. We’d explore the Salzburg castles together Wednesday afternoon. Thursday, we would head towards Munich, her by train, me by bicycle.

What an amazing day of cycling.

Most of Sunday I spent with either a river or a rail line beside me (sometimes both, and at one point two rivers and a rail line).

Amazing vistas surrounded me for most of the day.

When I stopped for lunch at 30 km, I learned that the PIN code for the credit card I gave to Linda doesn’t work. Just a core piece of European traveling advice – make sure you know the pin code for your credit cards. Hopefully we have Linda sorted out, but I spent a while working on it.

About 30 km out of Bischofshofen – my intended destination for the day – I disovered that the campground there is permanently closed. That mean I could either stop short at 60 km, or push on 60 km to the next one. However the next pass was only 20 km away, which should mean that the remainder of the ride would generally be down.

I crossed the first pass at 72 km. After days of gradual climbing, I’d come to expect a shallow descent. I was wrong. The 20 km down into Bischofshofen passed quickly. The only minus was the occasional section of highway without bicycle lane, as the mountains closed in.

Bischofshofen marked the end of EV 14, and my entry on to EV7 towards Salzburg. I’d slowly climbed for days, and I got that elevation back today. I blew through the next 20 km, although with more harrowing sections of highway. Then I saw a gorgeous, glorious castle up ahead of me in Werfen. Way up and ahead of me.

I had decided I did not have time to climb up to it, when I noticed on OSMAnd the funicular. I pulled in, and rode up to the top. The tour of the castle wouldn’t start for another 45 minutes, which likely meant I wouldn’t leave the castle until 6:00 p.m., not leaving myself a lot of margin. I called the campground and let them know I would probably be there about 7:00 p.m. and received a friendly response. Great.

I rolled out of the castle at 6:00 p.m. I had seen rain coming in behind me from the castle bell tower. The tour guide had noticed my cycling gloves, and commented that a train ran every 30 minutes to Golling if I wanted to avoid the rain. I told him my plan was to outrun it.

Then I made a harrowing descent. Much of that drop did not come with much more than a shoulder on the highway, and heavy traffic.

About 5 km outside of Golling I came to another pass. I’ve been pushing hard to stay ahead of the rain, and the last kilometer of climb over the pass almost did me in. Thank goodness for the bicycle path, as I wasn’t steady enough to be climbing and riding on the shoulder.

The remaining descent was on dedicated bicycle path. I rolled into the campground almost exactly at 7:00 p.m. The friendly host greeted me and got me squared away in a space next to a permanent shelter – a place to hide out from the incoming rain.

I grabbed dinner, and spent part of the evening talking to a group of Polish cyclists. They started their trip in Salzburg, and are headed for Venice. They asked if I was riding an electric bicycle, and were satisfied with my credentials when I said I was not.

Now I’ve overachieved. I hadn’t paid any attention exactly how far away I was from Salzburg, expecting it was still several days. Yet Salzburg is a (flat) 28 km away. Linda traveled away from Salzburg, and plans on returning on Thursday. I need to come up with an intermediate plan. But apparently I’ve got some time to figure it out!